Don Knabe

WHEN BROWNING-FERRIS Industries needed a permit for the Sunshine Canyon landfill in Granada Hills in June, the company had a powerful weapon: lobbyist Matt Knabe, the son of county Supervisor Don Knabe. And the senior Knabe made the difference, casting the deciding vote in the 3-2 split in favor of his son's client. Now BFI is coming back, this time to seek county approval for an increase in the amount of garbage it takes in, under a proposal already signed off on by the city.

L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who will have served 36 years in office when term limits block him from running again in 2016, wants voters to consider amending the law so he can stay for up to eight more years. On Tuesday, supervisors are scheduled to consider Antonovich's call for a November ballot measure to stretch the term deadline, a move that could benefit other longtime board members if voters approve. Antonovich said the current board was in the best position to steer the county through today's harsh economic times.

Matt Knabe is a successful Los Angeles lobbyist with a long list of clients and a reputation for delivering on their behalf. Don Knabe is a longtime Los Angeles County supervisor whose duties include doling out county business, setting policies and overseeing a vast district that swings along the county's southern edge. Don is Matt's father. In the course of their work, father and son naturally bump up against one another. Don Knabe could recuse himself from matters involving his son, but he doesn't.

It's election season at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and once again what passes for a campaign is taking on surreal qualities. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe has collected nearly $352,000 for his reelection bid from an array of contractors, builders, developers and casinos, even though no major challenger was on the horizon and he's now running unopposed. Two of Knabe's colleagues have raised more than $800,000 between them. One has no challenger and the other faces a little-known Palmdale convenience store owner who has pledged to spend less than $1,000 on his campaign.

Continuing the game of political musical chairs being played at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Deane Dana has announced that he plans to retire when his term expires in 1996 and that he supports his chief deputy, Don Knabe, to be his successor. "I believe this is the time to move on," Dana, a supervisor for 16 years, said in a letter sent to supporters last week.

It's election season at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and once again what passes for a campaign is taking on surreal qualities. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe has collected nearly $352,000 for his reelection bid from an array of contractors, builders, developers and casinos, even though no major challenger was on the horizon and he's now running unopposed. Two of Knabe's colleagues have raised more than $800,000 between them. One has no challenger and the other faces a little-known Palmdale convenience store owner who has pledged to spend less than $1,000 on his campaign.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe has been appointed to a committee of the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council by Tom Ridge, head of the Homeland Security Department. The appointment makes Knabe one of eight members of the domestic security agency's state and local officials senior advisory committee, which will work with the advisory council on domestic security issues related to terrorism.

The Fair Political Practices Commission has accused Republican state Senate candidate Don Knabe of sending an illegal campaign piece to 400 disabled veterans in his unsuccessful 1988 bid to defeat Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk). In the final weeks of the campaign, Knabe, a former Cerritos city councilman and chief deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, sent out a letter by a past national commander of American Disabled Veterans, Sherman E. Roodzant.

Supervisor Don Knabe assumed the largely ceremonial position of chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and announced that he would attempt to make county government more accountable. Knabe said he will seek to create an inspector general for risk management to minimize the county's liability in lawsuits and a charter amendment removing top bureaucrats from civil service protection.

L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who will have served 36 years in office when term limits block him from running again in 2016, wants voters to consider amending the law so he can stay for up to eight more years. On Tuesday, supervisors are scheduled to consider Antonovich's call for a November ballot measure to stretch the term deadline, a move that could benefit other longtime board members if voters approve. Antonovich said the current board was in the best position to steer the county through today's harsh economic times.

The head of the region's largest labor group on Thursday accused three Los Angeles County supervisors of ignoring changing demographics for the sake of their political careers. Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, said Michael D. Antonovich, Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky favor a redistricting plan that would make it more difficult to elect a second Latino to the five-member board. "Those three supervisors … are trying to hold onto a power structure that is outdated," Durazo said at a news conference.

A coalition of Asian Pacific Islander groups waded into the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' political redistricting fight Wednesday, backing a plan by member Don Knabe, a white Republican from Cerritos they say has supported them. By siding with Knabe, the groups joined opponents of two proposals seeking to create a second Latino-majority district on the five-member board. Such plans would undercut Asian American influence in county government, they argued. "You can entertain a majority district for Latinos, but … it's at our expense," said Herb Hatanaka, a board member of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, a coalition of 40 nonprofit groups that provide health, job counseling and other social services.

A push to increase Latino representation on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors changed course sharply Tuesday with the release of a new redistricting proposal drafted by board member Gloria Molina. Under a revised plan to create a second Latino-majority district, Molina, the only Latino to serve on the board in modern history, is suggesting that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's current Westside and San Fernando Valley district be radically reconfigured. Yaroslavsky, a white Democrat, will be termed out of office in 2014 but might run for mayor in two years.

As welfare rolls grow, Los Angeles County officials are considering limits on how long some of the area's most destitute residents can receive cash aid. Supervisor Don Knabe is pushing a proposal to replace monthly general-relief grants with housing assistance for recipients who don't try to find jobs or apply for disability benefits within a set time period. The goal, he said, would be to drop from the rolls people who are "just riding the system" so that funds are available to help those genuinely in need.

In any building but the L.A. County Hall of Administration, Supervisor Don Knabe might pass by unrecognized. That's because it's not necessarily the five county supes' faces but their names and power that register with Angelenos. Knabe, a son of Rock Island, Ill., belongs to one of the most consequential government bodies in California. For nearly 30 years, first as right-hand man to 4th District Supervisor Deane Dana, and since 1996 as the supervisor himself, Knabe has been managing matters in a swath of the county that reaches from Catalina Island, to both ports, to Los Angeles International Airport, to Diamond Bar and on to the San Bernardino County line.

Some of Los Angeles' elected leaders are suffering one of their periodic bouts of forgetfulness, this time about what it means to have or avoid a conflict of interest. Over at Los Angeles County, Supervisor Don Knabe thinks it's no big deal that he regularly takes action on matters before him that could benefit clients of his son, lobbyist Matt Knabe. Neither the supervisor nor his lobbyist son makes any apologies for those issues; each says he is merely doing his job. At Los Angeles City Hall, Councilman Dennis Zine showed a tad more sensitivity when he quietly recused himself from a matter before the council that would affect a client of his girlfriend, also a lobbyist.

For the family of Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, the bid by a Dallas-based firm to computerize county records has been lucrative: The supervisor's son was paid to lobby for the contract, and after Knabe and the other supervisors approved it, his wife then was hired to stage a major corporate event for the company. Knabe voted with his four colleagues last year to select Global 360 BGS Inc. from among 13 bidders for a $7.4-million contract.

Under pressure from Gov. George Deukmejian, Cerritos Mayor Don Knabe on Tuesday announced that he will bow out of a special election to pick a successor to Sen. Paul B. Carpenter (D-Norwalk). In a rare action for him, Deukmejian earlier this month met with Knabe and Assemblyman Wayne Grisham (R-Norwalk), who is also a candidate for the Senate seat, and appealed to one or the other--in the interest of party unity--to drop out of the March 17 special primary election.

Matt Knabe is a successful Los Angeles lobbyist with a long list of clients and a reputation for delivering on their behalf. Don Knabe is a longtime Los Angeles County supervisor whose duties include doling out county business, setting policies and overseeing a vast district that swings along the county's southern edge. Don is Matt's father. In the course of their work, father and son naturally bump up against one another. Don Knabe could recuse himself from matters involving his son, but he doesn't.

To avoid spending $10.5 million in taxpayer money just to make a political point, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe announced Thursday that he would change his vote from "no" to "yes" and permit a half-cent sales tax increase for roads and mass transit to be placed on the November ballot with other general election issues. Knabe, however, made it clear that he would continue to fight the tax proposal.